The source for that Sankaku article doesn't go into that much detail, and seem to make it all about Let's Playing an ADV game.
EDIT: This is his Youtube channel if you want to see what he uploaded (or archive it before it's taken down entirely):
Yahoo News
Youtuber Arrested on Suspicion of Publishing Animation Videos without Permission (May 18th):
He also uploaded two episodes of Spy x Family to his Youtube channel, and was discovered by Cyberpatrol (
wiki). Something that should be noted about Japan is if the police arrest you for anything, you have a choice of denying the allegations and sitting in a holding cell for 23~ days on suspicion of a crime without charge until you're hopefully released cause the police cannot build a case to prosecute you in court. But 23~ days is a long time, so for anyone with common sense, it's just cheaper to admit to your crime, even if you're totally innocent, so you can pay whatever fine and resume your life.
I doubt this guy is going to sit in a prison cell.
Publishing 'Spy x Family' etc. on Youtube without Permission (May 19th):
"I knew it was illegal, but I did it for living expenses."
This incident doesn't strike me as any different from Sweden's copyright law. It's alright to do whatever you want with media, so long as you are not making money off someone else's copyright. Which is why overseas media companies went after The Pirate Bay; those guys were making a fortune from advertising revenue distributing torrents. Of course, clueless individuals bought into the propaganda this stuff is merely copyright holders pointlessly trying to fight a losing battle against a hydra in a futile effort to stop copyright infringement, but that's completely the opposite of the truth. They only went after The Pirate Bay because there's money involved. Same as what happened with Megaupload; that guy was getting rich, and copyright lawyers wanted his money to blow on hookers and coke.
Now that Youtubers are making a lot of money on advertising revenue distributing videos of anime, games, and music without permission, it's prime time for copyright holders to bring these fat cows to the slaughterhouse. Everything in this world is about money, and it's really so long as you're not making money that you can fly under the radar of the copyright lawyer wolves.
Japan is unique in that it has a doujinshi culture in places like Comiket where people make money on copyright infringement. This has always been considered a grey area with incidents like the one involving the Touhou fan anime which ZUN was worried would transcend what everyone agreed upon. That copyright infringement should remain small and at events like Comiket. Not outside in the wider commercial realm where it competes with the original work. Now that everyone is on the internet, this grey area is seeping out with Japanese creators mimicking western influence of Youtuber culture, which is somewhat based on game creators using Youtubers as a means to advertise their games, which requires some partnership between game creator and Youtuber.